Second Best
by canadianfatcake
Summary: Beck was acting like the break up meant absolutely nothing to him; and that didn't please Andre one bit. Especially as he always wanted Jade for himself. Bade, Jandre friendship and a bit of romance, tiny bit of implied Tandre


**I love the idea of Andre being hopelessly in love with Jade, so here you are :)**

Andre Harris strolled through the main front door of Hollywood Arts as he drummed a rhythm with his fingers on his thigh. To him, everything was going great in his life - the only setback being the current underlying awkwardness between his group of friends. More specifically Beck and Jade; but he wasn't going to let that get in the way of another beautiful sunny day in Los Angeles.

Now humming a tune to go with his finger-drumming, he swaggered across the hall to reach his locker, before playing a couple of notes on the keyboard to allow him access.

"Hey man." He heard Beck's voice come from behind him, so turned round swiftly to greet him.

"Hey, how's you?" He watched Beck carefully as the Canadian bent down to open his own locker.

"I'm really good." Beck answered with a genuine smile. This reply caused Andre to turn away with a confused expression on his face. _How was Beck taking this break up so well? Did Jade not mean anything to him? _Beck's voice bought him out of his thoughts. "You seen Tori anywhere?" He shock his head 'no' in response. "Ah okay. I'll see you later." Beck held his hand up in a small wave before walking up the stairs and out of Andre's view.

Andre's eyebrows knitted together in confusion yet again, now that Beck was gone. _How could he be so blasé, acting as though Jade meant nothing to him?_

Sighing audibly, Andre sorted through the textbooks in his locker searching for the ones he needed for his next two classes. When they were found he shoved them haphazardly in his back before playing a tune to lock his locker. Bringing his left arm up, Andre glanced at the time displayed on his watch, 8:15; half an hour until class began, so he decided to visit the Rec Room to try out some new songs he was working on - he always preferred working on them in the mornings before school as no one was ever in there, and he worked better alone.

Humming again, Andre swung his bag over his shoulder and walked in the direction of the Rec Room, passing Tori on the way.

"Hey Tori, Beck's looking for you." He said over his shoulder with a smile as he walked past to reach the door of the room. His hand rested on the silver handle of the door as he peered into the room through the thin window; and he was surprised at who he saw. Jade was sitting on one of the couches with her legs tucked underneath her, reading a book closely. Upon seeing her, Andre was reluctant to enter, but decided he would. Jade wasn't _that_ bad.

As he tentatively pushed the door open, Jade's eyes left her book and flew to Andre.

"Hi." She said simply; shocking Andre in the process as he was expecting a rude remark on how he was interrupting her.

"Um, hey, Jade." He responded carefully as she bought her eyes back down on her book. "Do you mind if I use the keyboard?" He asked pointing towards the instrument, although he realised she wasn't looking at him.

"Sure whatever, go for it. Clearly I'm not using it." She replied waving her hand in Andre's direction before looking up again. He noticed her green streaked hair was tucked behind her ears messily and her blue eyes held an un-Jade like emotion - _sadness, dejection, loneliness_?

Against his better judgement, Andre sat down on the couch next to Jade and took the book from her hands, scanning the cover.

"Romeo and Juliet, huh?" He said as he nudged Jade's shoulder with his elbow. Jade let out a humourless laugh as she snatched the book back.

"I've got to read it for class." She said softly, shaking her head, "A tragic love story isn't exactly the type of play I want to be reading right now though." Andre looked down at his hands as he didn't know what to say in reply; but after a moment of silence he blurted out something he'd been meaning to say for a week.

"I think Beck is really stupid."

Jade's head shot up and she looked Andre directly in the eyes. Her mouth moved to form words, but nothing came out. Andre took her silence as a cue to say something else;

"I just can't believe how he's acting." Jade's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Like, he's acting as though breaking up with you has had no affect on him." Jade shrugged in response, but her eyes wondered to the pattern of the wooden flooring. "But most of all I think he's stupid because he broke up with you in the first place." This time Jade's head slowly turned towards Andre and the tiniest smile appeared on her face.

"You really think that?" She questioned in a small voice. Andre nodded.

"Sure," he took a deep breath as he looked down, "I mean, you're pretty, talented, clever, and when you let people in, you're a nice person too." She let out a small chuckle, which, to Andre, was the most beautiful sound in the world.

She sighed loudly. "It doesn't matter though. Beck broke up with me and he's the only person I'm ever going to want." She looked away, "Too bad the only one he wants is clearly Tori, who is better than me at everything except messing things up, which I seem to be good at lately."

"Tori isn't better than you, Jade." Andre countered. "I know what it's like to feel second best to someone. Beck has always got what I want ahead of me. Parts in plays, musicals and sports teams and then," He paused, "You."

"What do you mean, me?" She asked confusion showing on her face.

"I mean _you_." Andre reenforced, "I've had a crush on you ever since I met you, but Beck got there first. It went away for a while; I wanted to be happy for Beck, you know? He's my best friend." Jade nodded slightly, but she was still startled from his confession. " But then we recorded that song together and all those feelings I'd hidden away deep down resurfaced and they haven't gone since." Jade's mouth dropped open slightly in shock. "And now you're single…" He trailed off when he noticed Jade looking at his lips and before he knew it he was leaning towards her and she was leaning towards him. Their lips were milimetres from each other and about to touch when a familiar voice separated them.

"What are you doing?" Beck exclaimed from the doorway. Jade and Andre had jumped so far apart that they were now at opposite ends of the couch.

"Why do you care?" Jade questioned aggressively. "Nothing I do has anything to do with you since you dumped me." Beck's expression changed from angry to sad.

"But I didn't want to." He replied. Jade scoffed.

"I am a single woman, and if I want to kiss Andre then I damn well will!" She shouted as she got up from the couch and grabbed Andre's wrist. "Come on Andre, let's go and make out." Andre got up from the couch and followed Jade to the door, _who was he to turn down that offer?_ But Beck grabbed Jade's arm before she could exit. She looked into his eyes and her expression softened.

"Can I please just talk to you alone, Jade?" He asked hopefully.

Jade rolled her eyes before replying, "Fine," she turned to face Andre, "you had better go to class, I'll catch up with you later." She told him before offering him an out of character sympathetic smile. He nodded and exited the room, leaving Beck and Jade behind.

"So, uh," Beck began awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, "If I hadn't come in, would you and Andre be making out right now?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business, but yes, probably." She answered truthfully, perching on the arm of the couch as Beck stood in front of her.

"That makes me sad, Jade." Beck said so pathetically that Jade had to look at him to confirm that it was him talking. "Did our relationship really mean that little to you?"

That got Jade mad. "How dare you have the audacity to say something like that when you've been prancing around the hallways this week like a lamb on crack." Jade's voice ironically cracked itself as she spoke the last word. "It's made me feel like I meant nothing to you."

"Jade," Beck stepped closer to her, "You meant _everything_ to me. You _mean_ everything to me still." He gave her his best smile, which Jade knew he knew turned her into putty. "But did you really wanna kiss Andre? Because I might have to go and beat him up." That made Jade laugh out loud.

"Yeah right!" She said, "And no, I didn't really want to kiss him. I was caught in the moment. I was sad and he said some nice things about me… so my judgement was clouded."

Beck placed his hands on Jade's hips, "Do I get another chance? I really want to make this work. I love you." He announced innocently. Jade put her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her face; their lips close, but not close enough.

"Okay." She whispered simply before closing the space between them and crashing her lips upon his. Beck responded eagerly, smiling into the kiss as he was the luckiest guy in the world, because he really was. He had screwed over so many times with Jade, and it took the prospect of someone else having her to show him the she is who he needs to be with forever.

As their kissing intensified, neither Beck nor Jade noticed the teenager standing outside the room staring through the window, with nothing but feelings of jealousy and inadequacy radiating through his body. _Maybe_, he thought, _I have to settle for second best_. Andre turned around and made his way looking for Tori Vega.

**I hope that was okay :) review?**


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